Army of Shadows
by Odekake
Summary: Their world is falling around them, but they are the only ones left who can stop Master Core's destruction from reaching outside worlds. When you cannot fight your battles alone, how do you tell your ally from an infiltrator? And when you're unable to distinguish friend from foe, who will you trust?


Army of Shadows

A/N: I'm the co-author of the story Arbutus, and all I'm going to say about that story is that we're still working on it. We seem to have hit a block and I seem to be busy with my thesis work, but we'll do our best to update it before the end of November.

As for why this story exists, it's quite funny. I was playing a game of mafia on another site, but I got shot on N1 under ridiculous circumstances. So, since I can't play mafia I'm writing about it. That's all there is to this, really.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything in this story.

~o~

Prologue – N0

The world around them was falling into chaos, and there was nothing they could've done to stop it.

Nobody had expected it to happen – Master Hand, their mighty creator god, always had such control of everything that occurred in their world. But little did they know of the toll that such limitless power had on its wielder. And one day, the negativity that had been accumulating within Master Hand had consumed him, giving rise to the Master Core. A terrible being whose true appearance was obscured by the dark energies surrounding it, the Master Core immediately began wrecking havoc upon the world.

The battlefields were the first to fall – beautifully created replicas of various locations in the fighters' homelands – leaving only the main base untouched. But it was no safe haven – soon after the battlefields had been claimed by darkness, the Master Core had turned its attention on the inhabitants of the world. The fighters were wholly unprepared to handle this new threat. One by one they fell to Master Core's army of shadows, until Mario had gathered the few remaining survivors and retreated to the only part of their world that had not been taken – the remains of Palutena's Temple.

But the Master Core had a final trick that none of them could have foreseen, one that had only become apparent when several of the surviving fighters had begun turning up dead at the start of every day. The Master Core could morph the dark energies surrounding it to take on the form of anything, and split itself into multiple parts. It was then that they realized the Master Core could therefore take on the forms of their fallen friends. There were infiltrators in their midst.

The world around them was falling into chaos, but now they had the power to put an end to the destruction. This was their final stand.

*!*

It was the middle of the night, but Shulk found that he couldn't sleep at all. Lying at the base of the remains of Palutena's statue, he stared up at the starless sky as if it held the answers to all his questions.

He hadn't had visions for many days now – as if a sign that there was no future for this world and for any of them. Shulk tried to keep his mind away from that train of thought, there was far too much that depended on their success to allow for pessimism. But for all that he spoke of changing the future and taking control of destiny, even his optimism was wearing thin. He wasn't sure if they could do it.

Shulk closed his eyes and let the sounds in the background fill his ears. He had learned to distinguish friend from foe solely though the noises that they made: the decisive footsteps of Mario as he walked through the ruined temple and encouraged the others to remain hopeful; the fluttering of Pit and his dark clone's wings as they moved around; the soft dragging of Rosalina's dress as she floated by; Robin flipping through the pages of his tome; among the sounds that the others made. It used to be comforting to know that he was not alone, that there were others fighting alongside him. But knowing now that some of his friends were not who they appeared to be, Shulk could only feel sick – not knowing who to trust, it drove him crazy with paranoia.

With a heavy sigh, Shulk tried to put his mind at ease. He needed some sleep if he were going to be useful in the morning. Although Palutena's Temple offered protection to the fighters during the light of day, nighttime was when Master Core always struck. It was a tremendously hopeless feeling, to know that someone would not wake up in the morning – not knowing if it would be you. But Shulk felt that this night would be different, that they would all survive to see the next day – it was perhaps the only time they would. His visions had not yet left him.

It was their last stand; their last chance to save not only what remained of their world but all the other worlds that were in existence. Shulk knew that they could not afford to fail in their task.

~o~

A/N: For those of you who are familiar with the party game mafia, you're in luck because you'll have an idea of how the rest of this story will unfold. Since Shulk is the primary character in this story, his alignment is guaranteed to be "town". Next chapter will have a listing of every character that is in this story.


End file.
